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Anarchists and a Chechen are being linked to the Nevsky Express bombing case
The investigation into the case of the bombing in the Novgorod region on the evening of August 13 of the high-speed train "Nevsky Express", traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, is acquiring more and more new details. St. Petersburg anarchists Andrei Kalenov and Denis Zelenyuk, who were detained at the end of last week on suspicion of involvement in organizing a train crash , investigators recently found an alleged accomplice - 25-year-old native of Chechnya Khasan Didigov. On Tuesday he was detained for ten days pending arraignment.According to investigators, Didigov allegedly could have been the perpetrator of the terrorist attack , and Kalenov and Zelenyuk acted as organizers and “suppliers” who obtained the explosives. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office has not yet officially confirmed the detention of any of these young people, representatives of the Vainakh public organization, together with the parents of Khasan Didigov, have already hired a lawyer for him. St. Petersburg anarchists, one of whom went on a hunger strike on Monday to protest against the illegal detention, have not yet been able to find a defender.
As Vremya Novostei was told at the police station in the city of Chudovo (Novgorod Region), where Khasan Didigov lives with his parents, operatives detained him as part of a preventive operation, which was carried out in the city immediately after the Nevsky Express bombing by FSB operatives together with local by the police. While interviewing residents of the settlements closest to the site of the terrorist attack, detectives allegedly found witnesses who described two individuals of Caucasian nationality. The strangers allegedly hired private taxi drivers and drove around the region for a week before the explosion. Witnesses allegedly saw one of the suspicious Caucasians at the Malaya Vishera station an hour before the terrorist attack. According to other testimony, a Caucasian man climbed over the fence of the railway bridge over the Chernaya River, near which a train was blown up, just 15 minutes before the explosion.
Unidentified people tried to derail high-speed train No. 166, on which 231 passengers and 20 members of the train crew were traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, on the evening of August 13. On the Okulovka-Malaya Vishera section, saboteurs placed a homemade bomb with a capacity of approximately 2 kg of TNT under the rails. After the explosion, which thundered 30 meters before the railway bridge, the train of 12 cars derailed. However, no disaster occurred. According to experts, if the speed of the express did not exceed 100 km/h, at which regular trains travel, the train would certainly roll down a 30-meter embankment into the Chernaya River. But the Nevsky Express travels the entire route from Moscow to St. Petersburg at a speed of 180-200 km/h. As a result, several train cars fell onto their sides after the train had passed through the dangerous section by inertia. As a result of the accident, 62 people were injured, eight remain in the road clinical hospital in St. Petersburg. Doctors predict that most patients will leave the hospital by the end of the week.
Investigators began checking alibis and looking for terrorist accomplices among the Novgorod Chechens and Ingush the very next day after the explosion. As it turned out, Khaskhan Didigov seemed the most suspicious to them. Previously, a young man who did not officially work anywhere and was not registered came to the attention of the police for participating in a fight. At first, the Chudov police department asked him to provide explanations several times about how he spent the day on August 13th. And on Sunday, officers from the regional FSB department came for the Caucasian and took him to Veliky Novgorod. On August 21, by court decision, he was arrested for ten days. The petition from the Prosecutor General's Office indicated that Didigov had previously been convicted, does not have a permanent place of residence, may hide from the investigation or put pressure on witnesses, as he is suspected of committing a particularly serious crime.
It is still unclear whether Didigov resembles the sketch that was compiled from the descriptions of witnesses. The interests of the arrested person during the preliminary investigation will be defended by lawyer Murat Yunusov, who claims that there is not a single piece of evidence in the case indicating Didigov’s involvement in the explosion.
Meanwhile, the police believe that the detained Chechen was part of the same “terrorist group” with St. Petersburg anarchists Denis Zelenyuk and Andrei Kalenov, arrested on August 17. According to the version of the detained anarchists themselves, at the railway station in Malaya Vishera they changed trains going to Yaroslavl to get to the anarchist forum. According to operatives, the suspects wanted to look at the site of the explosion and, perhaps, dig up more TNT in the Novgorod forests, left over from the times of the Great Patriotic War. According to some reports, when detained, the anarchists were wearing camouflage suits and had shoulder blades in their backpacks.
“Leaving St. Petersburg on Friday, Andrei was wearing a khaki shirt. But it cannot be mistaken for a camouflage uniform. In addition, he has an official identification as a searcher, allowing him to excavate trophies from the Second World War,” Kalenov’s associates said in turn. According to members of the St. Petersburg League of Anarchists, Andrei came under the close attention of the special services not after his trial for illegal possession of explosives, but several years ago, when he signed a telegram in support of suicide bomber Zarema Muzhakhoeva, convicted in 2004 for a failed terrorist attack in Moscow.
The detained anarchists have not yet been able to find a lawyer, and their public representatives have not been able to meet with Zygmund Logis, the head of the investigation team of the Prosecutor General's Office in the case of the train bombing. On Monday, Andrei Kalenov went on a hunger strike to protest against his illegal detention.
Despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office has not yet officially confirmed any of the information that has emerged about the progress of the investigation into the explosion, in Malaya Vishera there is already talk of a high-profile trial. According to local operatives, the investigation into the terrorist attack will not last long.